Despite airing on a full-day tape delay, the BIG3 debuted with one of FS1’s largest basketball audiences. In other news, MLB on FOX had a weak outing over the weekend, and ESPN posted declines for Sunday and Monday Night Baseball.
Nearly 400K For Delayed BIG3 Debut
- Airing on a one-day tape delay, the television debut of the BIG3 basketball league earned 398,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 Monday night. Fox Sports said on Twitter Tuesday that it was one of the ten largest basketball audiences ever on FS1, but that statement was later pulled. Monday’s viewership exceeds every game of The Basketball Tournament, an annual summer competition that has aired on ESPN the past two years, and the average NBA regular season audience on NBA TV (313K). Keep in mind NBA games on NBA TV are blacked out in local markets.
Low Numbers For MLB on FOX
- Regional Major League Baseball action featuring Angels-Red Sox in 51% of markets earned a 1.2 final rating and 1.9 million viewers on FOX Saturday night, down 14% in ratings and 8% in viewership from last year (1.4, 2.1M) and flat and up 3% respectively compared to 2015 (1.2, 1.9M). The 1.2 rating is tied as the second-lowest ever for MLB on primetime broadcast television. In other action, Brewers-Braves had a 0.24 (+4%) and 358,000 (+14%) on Fox Sports 1 earlier in the day.
MLB Down on ESPN Sunday, Monday
- Pirates-Cardinals earned 1.5 million viewers on the latest edition of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, down 14% from Dodgers-Pirates last year (1.7M) but up 27% from a Cubs-Cardinals game in 2015 that was delayed 2.5 hours and finished at 1 AM ET (1.2M). Ratings fell 15% year-over-year (from 1.12 to 0.95). The following night, Rockies-Giants had 524,000 — down 6% from Astros-Angels last year (559K) and down 22% from Rangers-Orioles in ’15 (669K).
[Numbers via Fox Sports PR/Twitter 6.27; ShowBuzz Daily 6.27a, 6.27b]
